An Evening in Buburimu
by Jecca Meitahn
Summary: A young Elvaan gets ambushed by a goblin while heading for San d'Oria to join the ranks of adventurers there. His savior is perhaps more troubling than the Beastman was. Short oneshot.


Disclaimer: Not mine at all. FFXI belongs to the people at SE and the characters belong to a friend of mine. They were used with permission and she read it to make sure they were both in-character (they're both a little spastic, really).

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"Hng-!" He swung wildly, blindly, and by some miracle managed to hit the thing, for all the good it did. With a clunk, his makeshift club hit the corner of the goblin's helmet and bounced off harmlessly. The goblin - at least, he was pretty sure it was a goblin - snarled at him and rushed at him with its sword raised.

The young Elvaan stumbled backwards, avoiding the blows but nearly tripping in the process. He glanced down at the broken branch still gripped in his hand and, backing further away from the goblin, threw it and took off running.

The clang told him he'd probably hit the thing, but by the resulting growling, he'd only made it angrier. Beastmen rarely, if ever, stopped chasing their target if they could still see it and, he realized as it started scampering after him, it could probably run faster than he could.

"Help! Someone help me!" He couldn't see anyone, but then he hadn't seen the goblin until it had jumped out from behind one of the glowing rocks and put a large cut in his left arm, either.

Did goblins hunt by sight or smell, anyway? He'd never be able to hide if it was tracking his scent, not with blood everywhere. _I don't want to die out here!_

The footsteps behind him intensified. It was probably, he thought grimly, more goblins joining in the pursuit. There was supposed to be a town around here, right? If he could only _find_ it before -

"Stop running!"

The voice surprised him and he stumbled over the rocky ground while trying to see where it had come from. He flailed, overbalanced, and fell to the ground.

The goblin lunged at him but, by some miracle, faltered mid-step and then, rather gracelessly, tumbled to the ground beside him and . . . didn't move. It didn't move for a full minute, so he reached over and, very cautiously, poked it and withdrew his arm so fast he was pretty sure he almost sprained something. It still didn't move.

". . . That was anticlimactic . . ." he muttered to himself and finally snapped out of his daze enough to realize someone was crouched opposite the body. _Right . . . whoever killed this thing._

"You okay?" Was she laughing at him? It wasn't funny! He'd nearly died, there!

"Yeah. I think. Um. Thanks?" Sitting up was good, he decided, and shifted a little to get a better look at his unexpected savior.

"Not to be rude or something, but what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be staying closer to Windurst, at least until you get a little stronger?" A stray piece of her dark brown hair kept falling into her eyes. She kept blowing it away.

"Why would I be near Windurst?" Windurst was far away! Windurst was . . . huge! Right? He'd never actually been there.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you were a new recruit. You know, an adventurer? Figured you'd gotten lost or something." She stood for a moment to sheath her weapon; it was an axe, and he was pretty sure it was at least half as big as she was. How was she carrying that thing!

". . . I wasn't lost!" _My arm hurts_.

"Oh. Where're you going, then? I mean, there's not much out here except Mhaura, but that's way the heck over there." She turned and pointed back to the left, then added, "I think. Actually it might be more . . . that way, maybe."

He didn't answer her question, just tugged absently at his left sleeve. It probably wasn't worth the effort to repair it, he figured. Even if he managed to stitch it back together, there were the bloodstains.

"What happened to your arm?" She was trying to look at the cut.

". . . Nothing. Just, um. It's nothing! It'll be okay." No use worrying about the sleeve, anyway. He tugged at it again but the fabric didn't want to give out completely. Gritting his teeth, he rolled it up towards his shoulder.

"Ew, you sure? He got you pretty good, huh? I mean," she backpedaled, waving her hands wildly, "that butcher musta caught you by surprise, right? Since that's pretty deep. Do you have any potions? I could go get something from the outpost . . ."

"Butcher?"

"The goblin. That's what we call these ones." She nudged its sword with her boot as if to emphasize which goblin she was referring to.

The wound didn't really look _too_ bad, now that he had a minute to really examine it. That was good, really. It was easier to deal with them when they were shallow.

" . . . You don't talk much, do you? Sorry, sometimes I talk too much. Am I being a pain?"

He ignored her and placed his right hand carefully over the cut. _Heal_, he willed at it. _Heal_.

"You, erm . . . have to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, you know." She was still there. Why was she still there? She wasn't _annoying_, but he didn't even know her! Why was she talking to him!

". . . um . . . Do you . . . want something? Like gil? I mean, for saving me," he added hastily when he looked over and saw her puzzled expression.

"Why would I want gil for that?"

"I don't know. . ."

"Nah, I was just coming through here, you know? I was gonna - Hey, wait, did your arm stop bleeding? That's nifty! You're a mage?"

"um . . . " Where was his staff? He'd dropped it back when the goblin had hit him. The stick he'd grabbed up had been a poor substitute.

"Hey, where you heading, anyway? I mean, there's nothing out here."

Didn't she already say that? He stood up and pulled the remains of his sleeve back down over his arm, then tried to brush a few unruly strands of blond hair back out of his face.

"Hey? Where were you going to?"

" . . . Nowhere, really." Which was true enough, he supposed. He'd run from that way, right? So if he went back enough, he'd probably find his staff again, right?

"Oh. Wanna come with me to Mhaura? I gotta get back to Jeuno, but I can drop you off somewhere along the way, if that's the direction you were going."

". . . Where's San d'Oria?"

"You're not from- No, sorry, figured since you were an Elvaan and all. That was kinda stupid of me. It's . . . northish. I think. I know how to get there?" She shrugged and stood up, brushing dirt off her knees as she did so. "Wow, you're tall."

He blushed. Why did people always comment on that?

"Well, hey, I have to get to San d'Oria, too. Might even be faster. I can just get a chocobo there."

". . . You wouldn't mind? I don't want to delay you any more than I have, I mean . . . And I still have to go find my staff."

"Nah, it's no problem! C'mon, we can probably make the next boat if we hurry. It's getting dark, so maybe we'll even get attacked by pirates! What's your name, anyway?"

". . . Pirates!"

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.


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